We are hoping for some guidance to help my son choose which school to attend in the fall of 2016 for ME.
Which school is best for education and post education (job or grad school).
Because of scholarships and grants, UC Davis is by far the least expensive, followed by Cal Poly SLO, and then SDSU (twice as expensive as Davis).
Son is laid back and loves the outdoors, but GF will be attending SDSU.
Taking all of the above into consideration, any advice would be appreciated. Thanks
Friend was a Mech. Engineer at Cal Poly SLO, and he said the experience was a good one. He said there were a good amount of internship opportunities, the professors were responsive, and the tuition is quite good for a school of SLO’s caliber. UCD and SLO are on par in terms of rankings, but I think the pros of SLO cause it to become the better choice. This is coming of course from a friend who is an ex-Mech. Engineer at SLO.
SDSU has a cheaper tuition as well, but SLO should help for post education more than SDSU can.
It depends on what he wants. Is he thinking of grad school? If so, the UCs are designed to prepare students for grad school and eventual research. Or is he set on working in industry? If so, SLO is more geared towards that. If he’s not sure, he really can’t go wrong with either choice and neither would close any doors.
Environment-wise, “laid back and loves the outdoors” sounds like a good fit for Davis. I can’t speak for SLO though. Has he visited both schools? If so, does he have a preference as far as fit goes?
Don’t go based on where an SO is going to college. If it’s meant to be, they’ll make it work. If it’s not and SDSU wasn’t his first choice to begin with, he’ll likely regret going there just to be with his GF.
Both UC Davis and SLO are excellent choices. I’m a Davis grad and it was a wonderful experience. Davis is in a great location-halfway between SF and Tahoe, but if you don’t have a car it can be difficult. Davis itself is in the Central Valley. There are wetlands, but not much hiking potential. SLO is in the Coastal Range. Lots of outdoor opportunities. Both are college towns. I would visit both, and decide from there. Either way, your son will get an excellent education.
SDSU is also a good choice but the GF issue could backfire.
SDSU has very good local internships with all of the big corporate companies in town. They look to hire from SDSU: Northrop, GA, BAE, US Navy, Qualcomm, etc. Weather is great and SPORTS are big at SDSU. A huge campus could be helpful to avoid the GF if he needed to do that. Lots of local things to do and see from the beaches to the local mountains. GREAT city!
DD attends Davis and loves it. She does have a car but so do other friends. She just got back last weekend from Napa. They train into Berkeley and SF. They go river rafting. They go to Yosemite, Tahoe, and anywhere they can find a trail. Davis is a bike-friendly city. There are ~40K bikers in Davis. She bikes everywhere! Her friends intern in Silicon.
DS’s friend attend SLO; they like the school and the environment. If your son has a car, he should be able to make interviews in other parts of California. It’s a little difficult to get easily to LA or Silicon.
Hard choices, you really need to visit.